1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire spacer, and particularly to a wire spacer for use in terminating a high speed data transmission cable to a printed circuit board contained in a cable termination connector.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 5, a prior art high speed cable termination connector 700 is shown. The connector 700 has a dielectric housing 710, a conductive shroud 720, a printed circuit board 740 attached to a rear side of the housing, and a plurality of contacts 730 each having two ends, the forward end being mounted in the housing 710 and the rearward end being soldered to a connection pad on the printed circuit board 740.
High speed data transmission cables require sophisticated shielding to protect the integrity of the data transmitted. The shielding requirements create many problems during assembly of shielded cable ends. In particular, shielded wires in a cable have to be individually stripped and individually attached to corresponding pads on a rear of a component printed circuit board of a cable termination connector. Problems in organizing the termination of many shielded wires to one small printed circuit board develop. These problems result in greater complexity and cost during assembly of a cable to a cable termination connector.
An apparatus to help organize and simplify the connection of a large number of shielded wires in a shielded cable to a cable termination connector is thus desired.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a wire spacer to help organize a large number of wires in a cable for connection to a printed circuit board in a cable termination connector, in order to reduce cases of miswiring and to decrease production cost;
A second object of the present invention is to provide a wire spacer which can act as a strain relief mechanism to reduce pull stress on wire-PCB solder joints.
To achieve the above-mentioned objects, a wire spacer in accordance with the present invention includes a rectangular, block-shaped, dielectric housing having a plurality of holes defined therein for insertion of shielded wires from a cable therethrough. The wire spacer is used with a cable terminating connector of a prior art design. The prior art connector has a dielectric housing, a plurality of contacts retained in the housing, and a printed circuit board attached by its forward edge to a rear of the housing. Pads adjacent the forward edge of the printed circuit board are electrically connected to the plurality of terminals. The wire spacer abuts a rear edge of the printed circuit board. Wires held in the wire spacer are fixedly positioned and oriented and can be stripped using manual or automatic means, and then can be attached to pads adjacent the rearward edge of the printed circuit board with fewer wiring mistakes. The reliability of this attachment is increased because the wire spacer serves as a strain relief. Production is simplified and becomes more easily automated. Production costs are thereby lowered.